News in brief

Belgian police have arrested a man after a dinner guest found the bodies of his wife and 12-year-old stepson in a freezer. The female guest had decided to put leftovers in a freezer in the basement after a dinner with friends on Tuesday at the man's home in Verviers, east of Brussels, said Christine Wilwerth, of the city prosecutor's office. "Once she opened the deep freeze, she discovered the bodies." They appeared to have been in the freezer for several weeks. Ms Wilwerth said the man acknowledged that his wife had received stab wounds after a quarrel but had not explained the child's death. Associated Press in Brussels

Low sperm count pushes rhino closer to extinction

The Sumatran rhino, one of the world's most endangered species, is being driven closer to extinction because of reproductive problems that may be due to habitat loss, scientists believe. Low sperm counts and other reproductive problems are lowering pregnancies among Malaysian rhinos, according to a three-year study by Malaysia's wildlife department. Only between 30 and 50 rhinos - the only two-horned rhino in Asia - are left in the jungles of Malaysia's Sabah state on Borneo. The entire Sumatran rhino population numbers just 300, having been halved in 15 years by poaching.Ian McKinnon